Larry Watson, Montana 1948 - The bare bones of the story, about a young boy and his family and the secrets they keep, are good. Unfortunately, the boy/narrator can't decide which tone to use, so his character is inconsistent and overly wise and observant for his years, and his reflections on life, love, and people's true characters are dull and take away from the story. It's a clear violation of the "show, don't tell" rule, and in this case it would have deepened the story if we had seen the characters developing rather than being told that they did.
Nina Silber, Daughters of the Union - This is a really well-done look at the various roles women took during the Civil War, both at home and amongst the larger world. Specific examples and excerpts from letters underscored the author's points and made them personal, and her survey of the time period and the changing roles of women was wide-ranging and interesting.
Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi - This was more of a biographical study than I had been expecting, but Twain's reminiscences of what it was like learning to pilot a steamboat were fascinating, and his tale of revisiting the river and the ways in which it, its denizens, and its environs had changed very poignant.
Allan Wolf, New Found Land - The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, told in poetry. The author's consistent use of different verse styles for each character, and his grasp and differentiation of each character, were excellently done. Unfortunately the overall thrust of the work was a bit too self-consciously meaning-filled for enjoyable reading. It felt as though the author was thrusting the meaning insistently at the reader all the way through, which detracted from his obvious enthusiasm for the subject matter and the project.
Friday, January 04, 2013
Sunday, December 23, 2012
book reviews
Possibly the last set of the year! Too bad it's not more exciting ...
Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science - One of Collins's lesser works, in my opinion. While some characters do grow and develop, many of the main characters seem to undergo either no change at all or they change instantaneously for no reason. I didn't see science taking much of a role in the book, despite the author's desire to have it seem so. Definitely not a keeper.
Craig A. Monson, Nuns Behaving Badly - This was a story born of the author's research into music in early Italian convents. As he read in the Papal library, he kept stumbling on stories of nuns behaving in unusual ways, and eventually decided to do a book based on the stories he found. It's a very entertaining read - easily followable by someone with only a casual interest in medieval times or convents, and the characters are very well fleshed out from the extant records. I enjoyed it a great deal.
Webb Garrison, Amazing Women of the Civil War - This compilation of character sketches was a sad disappointment. Written in a very juvenile style, jumping to conclusions not supported by the evidence, getting facts wrong ... I would have liked to read the same book but with more detail and better research behind it.
Kyle Ward, History in the Making - This book has a great premise - studying history texts' coverage of major events in American history, and how the reporting and interpretation of those events has changed. Unfortunately, the author's notes made it clear that he was choosing his texts in order to bolster his own definitions of events, and as such, I found the notes really skewed the whole book and made me less interested in the premise.
Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science - One of Collins's lesser works, in my opinion. While some characters do grow and develop, many of the main characters seem to undergo either no change at all or they change instantaneously for no reason. I didn't see science taking much of a role in the book, despite the author's desire to have it seem so. Definitely not a keeper.
Craig A. Monson, Nuns Behaving Badly - This was a story born of the author's research into music in early Italian convents. As he read in the Papal library, he kept stumbling on stories of nuns behaving in unusual ways, and eventually decided to do a book based on the stories he found. It's a very entertaining read - easily followable by someone with only a casual interest in medieval times or convents, and the characters are very well fleshed out from the extant records. I enjoyed it a great deal.
Webb Garrison, Amazing Women of the Civil War - This compilation of character sketches was a sad disappointment. Written in a very juvenile style, jumping to conclusions not supported by the evidence, getting facts wrong ... I would have liked to read the same book but with more detail and better research behind it.
Kyle Ward, History in the Making - This book has a great premise - studying history texts' coverage of major events in American history, and how the reporting and interpretation of those events has changed. Unfortunately, the author's notes made it clear that he was choosing his texts in order to bolster his own definitions of events, and as such, I found the notes really skewed the whole book and made me less interested in the premise.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
book reviews
D. Michael Ryan, Concord and the Dawn of Revolution - This is a small book about the lives and contributions of a number of Concord residents during the events of the battles of Lexington and Concord. The vignettes both convey a lot of information and offer a sense of the people involved and how they were affected by the start of the revolution.
Naguib Mahfouz, The Thief and the Dogs - Essentially, a retelling of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment , but set in 1960s Egypt. I never got a good sense of what qualities in the main character I was supposed to care about, or why his revenge should matter to the reader. Every character in the book was deeply unpleasant, the pacing was extremely slow, and in the end I was left without a good sense of what the story had been supposed to be about.
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Lonely Heiress - One of Gardner's more convoluted plots, I still wasn't certain by the end of the book that I understood how each element fit in. It had a lot of the elements one expects from Perry Mason's adventures - the courtroom scene, the part where Perry gets himself in potential trouble with the law, the defendant who lies to Perry when the truth would have been a better choice. In addition, this one had a vivid description of the cops giving the defendant the "third degree", contained a touching little romance, and had a mix of particularly interesting characters.
Tracy Winn, Mrs. Somebody Somebody - Set in Lowell, MA, in the 1940s-1970s, this series of stories left me so depressed I had to go out and get ice cream. No one in any of the stories ever had anything good happen to them. Additionally, the book is not billed as a set of short stories, and the first two chapters are a linear narrative. So once I finished those and we started jumping around in time and character, I was extremely confused, waiting to find out what happened to the characters from the first couple of chapters. I was never with any of the characters long enough to be truly interested in what happened to them, and they were all so miserable I wasn't sure I wanted to know anyway.
Naguib Mahfouz, The Thief and the Dogs - Essentially, a retelling of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment , but set in 1960s Egypt. I never got a good sense of what qualities in the main character I was supposed to care about, or why his revenge should matter to the reader. Every character in the book was deeply unpleasant, the pacing was extremely slow, and in the end I was left without a good sense of what the story had been supposed to be about.
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Lonely Heiress - One of Gardner's more convoluted plots, I still wasn't certain by the end of the book that I understood how each element fit in. It had a lot of the elements one expects from Perry Mason's adventures - the courtroom scene, the part where Perry gets himself in potential trouble with the law, the defendant who lies to Perry when the truth would have been a better choice. In addition, this one had a vivid description of the cops giving the defendant the "third degree", contained a touching little romance, and had a mix of particularly interesting characters.
Tracy Winn, Mrs. Somebody Somebody - Set in Lowell, MA, in the 1940s-1970s, this series of stories left me so depressed I had to go out and get ice cream. No one in any of the stories ever had anything good happen to them. Additionally, the book is not billed as a set of short stories, and the first two chapters are a linear narrative. So once I finished those and we started jumping around in time and character, I was extremely confused, waiting to find out what happened to the characters from the first couple of chapters. I was never with any of the characters long enough to be truly interested in what happened to them, and they were all so miserable I wasn't sure I wanted to know anyway.
Thursday, December 06, 2012
book reviews
L.M. Montgomery, The Alpine Path - This brief little biography of Montgomery's family, early life, and early career really has her flavor. I find her biographical writing style both refreshingly personal and reminiscent of her published work - so many of the stories she tells found their way into her books. My only complaint about this one is that it was too short!
Florence Dupont, Daily Life in Ancient Rome - This was a really interesting book, covering every aspect of the Roman life, setting each habit and attitude and lifestyle into the overall belief system of the time period. Well written, clearly laid out, and informative, definitely a keeper.
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone - This is one of the most-cited books in all the journals I proofread, and having read it, I can see why. Putnam makes a tremendous case for why "social capital" (the time we spend out and about amongst other people socially) is important, he provides numbers and statistics on its health benefits, its educational benefits, its economic benefits, and he discusses in great depth the fact that social capital declined steadily over the course of the latter half of the twentieth century. My only quibble with the book is that it was published in 2000, and so much has changed since then - I'd love to see an updated version in which he talks about the impact of 9/11 and of the Internet on our general social habits. Nonetheless, dated as it is, it still has important messages to send.
Rien Poortvliet, illustrator, Gnomes - We used to have this when I was a kid, and I loved looking through it at the pictures and the vividly imagined world of the gnomes. I am more impressed, having read it over again as an adult, with the details of all the handcrafts and medicinal plants, etc. - the author of the text (whose name, sadly, is all but unreadable in the font) must have done a huge amount of research. It's not great literature, but it's such a cute, fun, imaginative book.
Florence Dupont, Daily Life in Ancient Rome - This was a really interesting book, covering every aspect of the Roman life, setting each habit and attitude and lifestyle into the overall belief system of the time period. Well written, clearly laid out, and informative, definitely a keeper.
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone - This is one of the most-cited books in all the journals I proofread, and having read it, I can see why. Putnam makes a tremendous case for why "social capital" (the time we spend out and about amongst other people socially) is important, he provides numbers and statistics on its health benefits, its educational benefits, its economic benefits, and he discusses in great depth the fact that social capital declined steadily over the course of the latter half of the twentieth century. My only quibble with the book is that it was published in 2000, and so much has changed since then - I'd love to see an updated version in which he talks about the impact of 9/11 and of the Internet on our general social habits. Nonetheless, dated as it is, it still has important messages to send.
Rien Poortvliet, illustrator, Gnomes - We used to have this when I was a kid, and I loved looking through it at the pictures and the vividly imagined world of the gnomes. I am more impressed, having read it over again as an adult, with the details of all the handcrafts and medicinal plants, etc. - the author of the text (whose name, sadly, is all but unreadable in the font) must have done a huge amount of research. It's not great literature, but it's such a cute, fun, imaginative book.
Monday, December 03, 2012
book reviews
Mary Francis Shura, Jessica - I had this whole series in the '80s when they came out, and am slowly building the set (at least the good ones) back up. I hadn't read this one in a long time, and I am startled at how mature it is. The relationships are complex and realistic and fit perfectly in the time period (the Kansas frontier in the mid- to late nineteenth century).
Max Franklin, Charlie's Angels - This adaptation of the pilot episode of the series was less impressive. It's very close to being a word-for-word transcription, and contains very little to help us get to know the characters any better. It wouldn't be impressive as fan-fiction. As published fiction, it's disappointing.
Les Standiford, The Man Who Invented Christmas - This is an in-depth look at how and why Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol and the events surrounding the book's publication. The author packs a lot into a small book, filling it with information that is wide-ranging but still relevant to the over-arching theme, and placing Dickens and his book firmly in the center of the creation of Christmas as we know it today.
Margeurite Henry, Misty of Chincoteague - This has never been my favorite Henry - those would be King of the Wind and Brighty of the Grand Canyon - but Misty is a sweet story about hope and hard work and determination. A bit unrealistic, perhaps, but heart-warming nonetheless.
Max Franklin, Charlie's Angels - This adaptation of the pilot episode of the series was less impressive. It's very close to being a word-for-word transcription, and contains very little to help us get to know the characters any better. It wouldn't be impressive as fan-fiction. As published fiction, it's disappointing.
Les Standiford, The Man Who Invented Christmas - This is an in-depth look at how and why Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol and the events surrounding the book's publication. The author packs a lot into a small book, filling it with information that is wide-ranging but still relevant to the over-arching theme, and placing Dickens and his book firmly in the center of the creation of Christmas as we know it today.
Margeurite Henry, Misty of Chincoteague - This has never been my favorite Henry - those would be King of the Wind and Brighty of the Grand Canyon - but Misty is a sweet story about hope and hard work and determination. A bit unrealistic, perhaps, but heart-warming nonetheless.
Friday, November 30, 2012
book reviews
Jeffrey Zaslow, The Girls from Ames - I thought this story of lifelong friendship among a group of women would be a fascinating read ... but in the end, I really didn't find that it had much to say. They were a group of women, they were friends for a long time, that was pretty much it. I didn't think it made any particularly interesting points, and I didn't find myself interested in the women at all.
Craig Johnson, Kindness Goes Unpunished - It's a gutsy move, for your third book to take all your characters and move them halfway across the country to a new city, but it really worked here. I liked the way Sheriff Longmire and his crew dealt with the challenges presented to them in Philadelphia. There were a few too many coincidences, and I wasn't as enamored of Deputy Vic's whole family as the author was, but overall it was a fast-paced, well-written book, showcasing the character interactions that are some of Johnson's best writing.
Jan Karon, These High, Green Hills - I think with the Mitford series Karon achieved exactly what she set out to do - create a world people look forward to going back to. I enjoy every time I open one of her books and find myself on Main Street, walking past the Grill. They're simple people living their everyday lives, and yet they're so unique and so interesting and at the same time so homey that you want to keep going back.
Livy, A History of Rome: Selections - I quite enjoyed this translation. Livy (or, at least, his translator) has a candid, easy-to-read style that brings the events of Rome's history to life. Additionally, I enjoyed a brand-new experience with this book - it's the first time I ever got to cut the pages of a book! I don't know whose book this was before me, but they clearly hadn't read it from cover to cover. And I find that the newly cut pages provide a pleasing slightly ragged quality to the book. All the more so because I got to do it myself!
Craig Johnson, Kindness Goes Unpunished - It's a gutsy move, for your third book to take all your characters and move them halfway across the country to a new city, but it really worked here. I liked the way Sheriff Longmire and his crew dealt with the challenges presented to them in Philadelphia. There were a few too many coincidences, and I wasn't as enamored of Deputy Vic's whole family as the author was, but overall it was a fast-paced, well-written book, showcasing the character interactions that are some of Johnson's best writing.
Jan Karon, These High, Green Hills - I think with the Mitford series Karon achieved exactly what she set out to do - create a world people look forward to going back to. I enjoy every time I open one of her books and find myself on Main Street, walking past the Grill. They're simple people living their everyday lives, and yet they're so unique and so interesting and at the same time so homey that you want to keep going back.
Livy, A History of Rome: Selections - I quite enjoyed this translation. Livy (or, at least, his translator) has a candid, easy-to-read style that brings the events of Rome's history to life. Additionally, I enjoyed a brand-new experience with this book - it's the first time I ever got to cut the pages of a book! I don't know whose book this was before me, but they clearly hadn't read it from cover to cover. And I find that the newly cut pages provide a pleasing slightly ragged quality to the book. All the more so because I got to do it myself!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
book reviews
Elaine Viets, Final Sail - The most recent installment in the "Dead End Jobs" series begins to fix a big plot mistake in Helen Hawthorne's personal life, which is a big relief ... and offers a lively, interesting new pair of mysteries, to boot. While Viets's stories aren't flawless, they are fast-paced, filled with interesting characters, and transport you to a place you'd like to hang out.
Judith Redline Coopey, Redfield Farm - Unusually for a book group selection, I really loved this book. I found it well centered in its time period - Pennsylvania just before the Civil War - and I found the stereotypical female first person narrator to be not only grounded in her time and place, but a well-rounded, believable, and likeable character, as well ... a refreshing change.
Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., Time Out for Happiness - I'm an avowed Gilbreth-ophile, and I found this short biography of Gilbreth's parents delightful. In places it went back over material already contained in Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes, but there was a depth to it that those lighter books never quite reached.
Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving - This is a short, simple book about several children left at home alone on Thanksgiving and their attempt to make a nice Thanksgiving dinner on their own. None of the expected tropes occur, the dinner is not necessarily a success, but the warmth of the family comes through clearly and the book leaves you smiling.
Judith Redline Coopey, Redfield Farm - Unusually for a book group selection, I really loved this book. I found it well centered in its time period - Pennsylvania just before the Civil War - and I found the stereotypical female first person narrator to be not only grounded in her time and place, but a well-rounded, believable, and likeable character, as well ... a refreshing change.
Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., Time Out for Happiness - I'm an avowed Gilbreth-ophile, and I found this short biography of Gilbreth's parents delightful. In places it went back over material already contained in Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes, but there was a depth to it that those lighter books never quite reached.
Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving - This is a short, simple book about several children left at home alone on Thanksgiving and their attempt to make a nice Thanksgiving dinner on their own. None of the expected tropes occur, the dinner is not necessarily a success, but the warmth of the family comes through clearly and the book leaves you smiling.
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